We have a couple of dimension printers at Hobie Cat with a build space of 10x10x14. They have totally changed our products. It allows us to go through an iterative design process with physical parts to use and hold. Saves us a lot of money in tool revisions, and the end product is always a lot better.
Printing the odometer gear wouldn't be a good match for this type of 3d printer, which is the same technology as the maker bot. It's not as good with really fine resolution (really small parts). It's also not as strong as the base material that is being printed. I'd say it's 50-75% as strong as solid ABS. The machine prints in very thing layers, and if the force on the part is trying to pull these layers apart it is even weaker in this direction. There are other 3d printing technologies that do make higher resolution parts with better physical properties.
What this technology is perfect for is making hollow parts (there is a thin lattice structure printed in the center to make it stiff and to support itself during the printing process, but the parts are VERY light). Then you can cover them in glass or carbon and you end up with a part that's exactly the shape you want, and it very light and strong. This is what we do when we are printing parts that will be injection molded in production to bring them up to strength, but in most cases we print these parts solid to get as much strength as possible.
Joel, I'd love to get those STL files from you for when I get around to doing more invasive engine work.
Cheers
Phil
